How did Ketogenic Diet start?

The Ketogenic Diet started as an unlikely solution to weight loss. It started way back 1920s when doctors were developing a solution to control epilepsy seizures. It was initially used as a nutritional plan to trigger a phenomenon when the body is forced to use fat as a source of energy instead of carbohydrates.

This phenomenon was called Ketosis

It is when the body creates two acids in the blood called decatonic acid and ketones. These two will then be used as fuel by the brain and body.

Because of this, the Ketogenic Diet was created as Ketosis greatly helped in reducing seizures for some people who had Epilepsy, Infantile Spasm, Tuberous Sclerosis and Dravet syndrome.

Documented clinical trials states that the ketogenic diet helped reduce the total number of seizures by 40% in half of the people who participated in the trial. The other half that did not experience a reduction in seizures however, experienced an increase in their awareness and responsiveness.

So.. Does Ketogenic Diet really work?

The results produced by the clinical trials were enough to get support for further research and helped those who are suffering epilepsy avoid surgery and got lower need for medication. Further research proved that switching the body to use fat instead of carbohydrates as source of energy had a bonus effect, Weight-Loss. So Yes, it really works.

The real Ketogenic Diet has 30% protein, 65% percent carbohydrates, and 35% fat. However, the early adopters of this diet as a means of weight-loss edited the recommended diet and removed a few more major food groups that are carbohydrate-heavy including fruits, beans, grains and dairy. This is to achieve optimal results for losing weight. It produced a diet program for rapid weight loss.

Removing those food groups will leave you with food options like fish, unprocessed meat, eggs, seeds, butter and non-starchy vegetables. There are also options like avocados, nuts and oils. This resulted to a diet that has 80% Fat, less than 5% Carbs, less than 20% Protein.

Although loading up on protein-rich foods may make you feel a bit fuller to get better weight loss results, people who follow this diet will have an even harder time controlling their cravings.

This kind of diet also may make people sluggish because the body takes more energy to go into ketosis than just using carbohydrates.

Are there disadvantages?

The 3 biggest risks in Keto Diet is Keto Flu, Issue in Sustainability, and Rebound Weight-Gain

• Keto Flu is a collection of symptoms a person experiences when in the early stages of Keto diet. The symptoms – which can be mistaken for a flu due to their similarities – are caused by Ketosis stage due to lack of carbohydrates
• Issue in Sustainability – Restricting yourself from carbohydrates can be very tough. It can also be a barrier in motivating yourself to follow the keto diet for a long time. It’s very tempting and it will be hard to stop yourself from eating food that you weren’t allowed to eat.
• Rebound Weight-Gain – directly tied to the issue in Sustainability, quitting Keto will lead to unrestricted and unplanned eating. A lot of Keto quitters go through this phase. This is very risky because you’ll end up with more weight than when you started.

Related: Top 10 Risks of Keto Diet and How to fight them

It’s very common that when people start following a diet and workout pan, they try to overexert themselves by going cold turkey or working out more than needed to rapidly lose weight. This only leads to burnout and failing to diet.

To wrap things up, as a rule, if you want to be successful in anything, you have to train. The concept is the same with your body, if you want the Ketogenic diet to really work, you have to train your body to be able to get used to Ketosis. This means instead of going cold turkey, gradually decrease your carbohydrates consumption and start with light workout routines first. The results may be slower, but the possibilities of getting the most out of the ketogenic diet will be high.

If you are looking for alternative diet plans, I recommend looking into the Leptin Diet. It has a different approach on weight-loss in general and has less-restrictive food options.